Every train that arrives at Los Angeles Union Station has to back out the way it came. The station opened in 1939 as a stub-end terminal, and eighty-seven years later that geometry still caps how many trains can use the busiest transit hub in the western United States. Link Union Station turns it into a through station.
Project Scope
The work builds run-through tracks south of the existing platforms and carries them across the Hollywood Freeway on a new elevated rail structure just under half a mile long. Platforms get raised, the signal system gets rebuilt, and the cramped passenger tunnel under the tracks is replaced by a widened underground concourse. Freight work at Malabar Yard in Vernon adds tracks and a 1,000-foot connector along 46th Street, and the 49th Street grade crossing closes. FlatironDragados holds a preconstruction contract worth roughly $7 million, part of $17.5 million Metro awarded across two rail jobs, and is pricing the work at 30, 60 and 90 percent design before a fixed price gets negotiated. Metro, Metrolink, Amtrak and the California High-Speed Rail Authority are all partners.
Why It Matters
Union Station handles more than 100,000 passengers a day, and regional travel is projected to double by 2040. Reversing every train out of a dead end costs platform occupancy that Metrolink and Amtrak cannot get back, and it is the reason schedules cannot tighten no matter how much rolling stock shows up.
The Metro board approved the run-through tracks unanimously in October 2025, and a committee cleared additional early-construction funding in February 2026. Metro scaled the plan back from its original track count to hold cost, which is worth watching: the earlier full build was estimated at $1.93 billion in 2023, and the wider phase including the elevated 101 crossing has been described near $3 billion.
The project is also a prerequisite. California High-Speed Rail cannot reach downtown Los Angeles without it.
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Project Team & Details
| Owner / Client | Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority |
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| Consultants | Metrolink / SCRRA (Operating Partner)
Amtrak (Operating Partner)
California High-Speed Rail Authority (Program Partner) |
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| General Contractor | FlatironDragados |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | CMAR |
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| Funding Source | Mixed |
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